


and we are finding our courage (it is a reclamation)

by mouseymightymarvellous



Series: cicadas chirping in the dark and moths around the porch light (you come home) [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Female Friendship, Gen, Pre-Time Skip, crosspost, girls supporting girls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-19 16:11:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20660030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mouseymightymarvellous/pseuds/mouseymightymarvellous
Summary: Hinata knows what it is to hold yourself so still, as if that could be enough to ward off the loneliness, ward off the hurt. She doesn't quite know what to do with that stillness when it is living in someone else's body, though.





	and we are finding our courage (it is a reclamation)

Today is Hinata’s turn to get today’s lunch for Team 8. The best part about being the person who buys lunch is that you get to choose the food. The worst part about being the person who buys lunch is that you have to be ready for whatever ambush your teammates have prepared in your absence. Hinata very much does not want to end up in the river again, no matter that that afternoon turned into a water fight and an informative lesson from Kurenai-sensei on water walking.

Kiba had whined pathetically as she was leaving, Shino sitting on his back to keep him from chasing after her, that he was “so hungry Hinata, you don’t even know, so hungry, ok?” and so Hinata has decided to return with dango on top of the assorted onigiri. She just hopes that she managed to get everyone’s favourite flavours.

When she gets to her favourite dango stand, Sakura-san is sitting slumped at a table mostly hidden from view of the street.

And, it’s strange, because Sakura has always, for Hinata, been a strong person to admire: she speaks her mind and is never afraid to tell Sasuke-san that she loves him. Hinata only wishes that she could be that brave. And yet, this warm afternoon where Hinata is almost humming cheerfully under her breath as she heads back to her team, Sakura-san is sitting alone, teamless.

Hinata considers Sakura-san from the corner of her eye as she makes her purchase, fretting.

Would it be rude to stop and speak to her? Hinata doesn’t want to intrude.

She notices that she’s squishing the boxes in her arms through her fretting, and does her best to relax her hold.

The next time she glances over at Sakura-san, Sakura-san is watching back.

Hinata squeaks.

“Hi, Hinata-chan!” Sakura greets, a smile on her face, but Hinata can hear the strain there.

“Good– good afternoon, Sakura-san,” Hinata murmurs back. She shifts awkwardly, not quite sure what to do.

“Sakura is fine,” she insists, “we were classmates for a long time after all.”

Hinata blushes. “Oh no! I couldn’t—”

“Well then,” Sakura grins again, wider and more true this time, “then you’ll have to go with Sakura-chan!”

And Hinata wants to refuse because. Well, because. But she remembers the way Sakura had her head turned away from the street when she first arrived, and if she looks carefully, those green eyes are framed ever so slightly by red rims.

“Ok,” Hinata dips her head. “Good afternoon, Sakura-chan.”

And finally, finally, Sakura-sa— Sakura-chan’s smile is that brilliant thing Hinata remembers from the Academy.

“Do you want to sit?” Sakura-chan offers, gesturing at the other seat at her table.

“I’m sorry, but I must be returning to my team,” Hinata says regretfully.

The way that Sakura-chan slumps isn’t obvious, it’s more of just a feeling around her, make Hinata’s heart hurt like every time she ate lunch alone.

“Are— are you not training this afternoon?” she tries.

And well, that just makes things worse if the way that Hinata can almost see storm clouds gathering around the other girl is any indicator. She winces.

“Train?” Sakura-chan asks. “Ahahaha, no, see, Kakashi-sensei has an important meeting this afternoon and I figured out the exercise from this morning, so—” She shrugs.

Hinata holds back a frown.

“Oh, I— I see.” She stumbles, at a loss for what to say. Because there is too much bitterness in that for it to be about only one afternoon. Hinata musters her courage, closes her eyes, and hopes this doesn’t end badly. “Would you like to have lunch with me on Wednesday?” she asks.

Sakura-chan blinks.

“I mean, only if you don’t have anything else more important to do! It’s just that we have Wednesdays off from training and I thought maybe we could have lunch and then go to the library? Or shopping! Shopping might be, fun?”

Sakura-chan blinks, and then–to Hinata’s surprise–she blushes.

“Really?” she asks softly.

Hinata nods. Probably too many times, given the way she’s starting to feel dizzy. “Yes?” she squeaks.

Sakura-chan bites her lip. “I would— I would really like that, Hinata-chan.”

Hinata beams, and then tries to tone it down. “Then I will see you here, at one, for lunch on Wednesday?” She almost passes out from how authoritative she sounds.

Sakura nods. “Wednesday.”

Hinata glances around and yelps. She’s going to be late getting back to training! “I have to go, but I will see you Wednesday, Sakura-chan!”

She would swear that she is chased by giggles as she runs, but not malicious ones. Hinata runs faster with that light laughter nipping at her heels.

“What’s bothering you, Hinata-chan?” Kurenai-sensei asks as they take a break for water.

Hinata frowns, taps her index fingers together.

“Sensei,” she asks, “what would you do if… if a friend was lonely?”

Kurenai-sensei looks at Hinata with her lovely eyes that see in ways the Byakugan does not. “Do my best to see them not lonely.”

And well, yes, Hinata thinks. “But how?”

Kurenai-sensei shrugs, a movement that makes her long hair swing. “Sometimes people want to be lonely, but if they don’t, you give them opportunities to be around friends.”

Hinata nods, and thinks on that as they drink and watch the boys spar.

She has invited Sakura-chan out for lunch, but this is not, Hinata thinks, something that can be solved by one lunch.

Sakura-chan looked the way Hinata felt inside when she looked in the mirror, before Team 8 and Kurenai-sensei’s gentle praise and the way that Shino and Kiba wrap her up in their bickering and their laughter. Sakura-chan looks like someone who has lost the place they belong to, or maybe, someone who just found out that the place they thought they belonged was never really their’s to start.

“Kurenai-sensei,” Hinata ventures. Her teacher tips her head to show she’s listening, even though she doesn’t let her gaze stray from where the boys have tumbled into roughhousing. “You were speaking earlier this week about introducing new elements to training, to get us used to new situations. Could I—” she stumbles, but Kurenai-sensei is patient as Hinata steels her courage. “Could I maybe invite my friend to join us, sometimes?”

When she dares look up, Kurenai-sensei is staring down at her with pride. Her hand on Hinata’s head feels like benediction. “I think that’s a great idea, Hinata-chan. We’ll talk about some good exercises that could require a fourth genin to change things up.”


End file.
